4 Your Development
Professional development ideas from Learning 4 Learning Professionals
July 2014
IN THIS ISSUE:
Learner Motivation: The Missing Ingredient?
Malcolm Knowles, one of the pioneers in the study of adult learning, famously lists the desire and ability
to be self-directed as one of the core characteristics of adult learners. But ask trainers or faculty members,
and they could probably point to a lot of evidence showing that is not always the case. Learners
sometimes seem entirely dependent on direction and coaching from a learning facilitator, unwilling or
incapable of making decisions about learning goals and strategies. It’s clear that people are not always
motivated to learn what we think they should learn.
And yet, we are moving toward a time when employees will more likely be given the tools of learning
(informal learning assets, social networking capabilities, experiential learning options, a learning
environment) rather than a catalog of formal training and education options. Learning professionals are
advised to avoid creating formal courseware when access to the internet and a good professional network
will provide employees the needed resources to learn their own. Are your learners ready for that?
In this issue of 4 Your Development, I’ll share seven pillars for self-directed learning and some steps you
can take to help your learners thrive in a self-provisioned learning world.
A new culture of learning…
Some learning pundits believe that all we really need to do is get out of the way, and people will step up to
use the internet and their professional and social networks to find everything they need to learn. People
who are deeply passionate about a topic or practice area seem to prove that. We all know folks who are
intent on developing their professional expertise or who spend hours pursuing learning related to their
hobbies and interests. In the non-work environment, we can see how folks have learned that their social
connections indeed help them to get to the right resources quickly – for restaurant recommendations,
information on medical diagnoses, and the best sale prices, among other things.
Nonetheless, employees often still think of learning in the workplace as an event that takes place in a
certain place or format. While they may be active on Twitter or often on the internet to skim the news,
they do not quite know how to use those resources as professional development tools.
One way we address that concern is to curate a learning environment. A learning environment is a
deliberately curated collection of resources and activities meant to support learning around a specific
knowledge base or skill. We make recommendations to learners about which resources to access, which
people to follow, and which activities to pursue that are most likely to help them achieve their
development goals.
In the learning environment design framework, learner motivation is one of the components for success,
but real readiness for self-directed learning goes deeper than that. Through reviewing theory and research
on self-directed learning, seven pillars emerge that undergird learner readiness for this modern approach
to learning.
The seven pillars of self-directed learning…
Motivation – People have to want to learn, and that
desire is most often fueled by a desire to do something
(not a desire to learn something). Among adults, learning
is most often triggered by a specific need or recognition
of a discrepancy between current capabilities and the
capabilities needed for future success. Motivation
overcomes obstacles, and without motivation, learning is
not likely to stick.
Intention – People learn best when they go into a
situation or activity with the express intention to learn
something from it. Learners might observe colleagues to
imitate their approach to a client conversation, read an
article to glean key principles for action, or take a class in
order to gain the fundamentals of a new knowledge base of skill.
© Catherine Lombardozzi, Ed.D. Page 1 of 2
4 Your Development
is authored by Catherine Lombardozzi.
Contact me at 302-994-0451
or clombardozzi@L4LP.com
Subscribe at www.L4LP.com
Blog: www.learningjournal.wordpress.com
On Twitter @L4LP
PO Box 6431, Wilmington, DE 19804
4 Your Development
Professional development ideas from Learning 4 Learning Professionals
Attention – Our modern world holds a lot of distraction, and multitasking often degrades the ability to
absorb and retain. At the same time, deliberate and careful practice is necessary for people to develop
real expertise – and that practice requires deep attention to what they are doing.
Self-Knowledge – To develop themselves, people first must have a clear-eyed sense of their own strengths
and opportunities. While this can come from reflection, it can also come from accessing revealing
assessment exercises. To manage their own learning, it is helpful for people to understand their own
preferences and needs related to learning so that they can pick the best techniques and approaches to
support their learning.
Engagement – Lasting learning comes from intellectual activity and emotional connection. Learning
activities need to be challenging on some level to stimulate the mind and build neural connections. Adding
a degree of emotional energy strengthens the likelihood of retention as well.
Reflection – Kenneth Seibert wrote, “Forget the myth that we learn from experience, and embrace the
reality that we learn by reflecting on experience.” Taking time to make meaning, to organize our thoughts
on what we hear, read, or experience, to consider how our learning should impact how we think and
behave in the future – this is the real work of learning.
Time and space – Learners need to have a bit of “head space” to be able to engage in learning activities
and to reflect on their meaning and implications. Without adequate time, It’s hard to imagine how people
can give learning the intention, attention, engagement, and reflection it needs.
July 2014
For discussion…
Are your learners ready
to be self-directed?
Get together with your team or
with L&D colleagues and discuss
your learners’ readiness for a selfdirected learning strategy…
 What demonstrates to you that


your learners are ready (or not
ready) for self-directed learning?
Which of the pillars may need some
shoring up for your learners, and
how can you strengthen them?
How can you and your team model
effective self-directed learning?
If you would like me to lead a
discussion, webinar, or workshop on
this topic for your organization,
please contact me at
clombardozzi@L4LP.com.
“They know enough who know how to learn.”
~ Henry Adams
Are your learners ready?
Given these necessary ingredients for pursuing self-directed learning, it’s appropriate to ask whether or
not our learners are ready to manage their own learning goals and activities. Learning leaders can give
employees support to improve the degree to which these pillars are solidly in place.
Here are some tips:
 Promote learner motivation. Point out relevance of knowledge and skills needed, and encourage
learners along the way. Ensure learners have a strong sense of “the why” related to their learning, not
just “the what” they need to learn.
 Support learners in finding and accessing the right resources. It is especially important to make access
to resources as frictionless as possible. Often, this involves pulling together an electronic portal.
 Curate engaging materials and activities. When you provide resources for learners, whether formal
training or informal resources, select them based on how interesting and intellectually challenging
they will be from the learner’s perspective.
 Point out what learners can gain from the curated resources and activities. Provide context for the
articles you recommend. For example, identify what learners might emulate from peer mentors, or
explain how a particular assignment might enrich their knowledge or skills, or make explicit in other
ways how people can leverage specific components of the environment to learn.
 Help people learn to learn. Even today, employees may be expecting formal training and a directed
list of activities, and they may not have fine-tuned practices for directing their own learning. Help
them by providing guidance, modeling the way, and even providing “learning to learn” resources.
 Help learners identify goals and plan for development. Provide assessment activities, advice on
required knowledge base and skills, and other resources that help learners to identify and refine their
learning goals. Consider ensuring that formal learning events always have an element of planning for
continuous development after the close of the formal program.
 Make room for learning. While it’s common these days to talk about learning in the flow of work,
learning often requires study time and reflection. Find ways to dedicate time and space for learning
activities, and encourage learners who clearly take the time and use it wisely.
© Catherine Lombardozzi, Ed.D. Page 2 of 2
Recommended resources
on self-directed learning…
Intentional Change Theory by Richard
Boyatzis, summarized by MindTools
here. See also An Overview of
Intentional Change from a Complexity
Perspective. By Richard Boyatzis.
Journal of Management Development,
25 (2006), 607-23.
Informal learning: theory, practice,
and experience summarized by Infed
here. See also Revisiting Informal and
Incidental Learning as a Vehicle for
Professional Learning and Development. By Victoria J. Marsick, Karen E.
Watkins, and Barbara Lewin in
Elaborating Professionalism: Studies in
Practice and Theory, ed. by Clive Kanes
(Springer, 2010).
Self-Directed Learning (Chapter 4) in
Adult Learning: Linking theory and
practice. By Sharan B. Merriam and
Laura L. Bierema. (Jossey-Bass,
2014) On Amazon here.
If you need more resources, or are
having trouble accessing these,
please give me a call – I will be
happy to share what I can.